Aug 31 Creative Photography Retreat Recap

I must say, traveling across the country can be a bit draining. Being sung “Happy Birthday” by 300 people at once is exhilarating. Teaching the same class 8 times over 2 days is exhausting. Meeting new friends and seeing old friends is awesome! Seeing scrapbookers with laptops is inspiring. What a cool thing. It’s a real wish fulfilled for me to be part of these live events where people are bringing computers, just like it’s a wish fulfilled for me to be part of online classes on using the computer as a scrapbooking tool.

After flying ALL day (left at 8 this morning from San Jose, got into my driveway at 9:15 tonight), I am a little tired, but so glad this weekend went well. CPR was SUCH a cool event. I was initially pretty nervous to teach a live photo editing class. It’s something that doesn’t get attempted very often, for obvious reasons, right? Hehe. Well, we had a great time. And my favorite part? Seeing the pics that everyone brought to practice on after we finished with our sample.

We definitely had some adventures with Adobe Camera Raw and the various versions of Photoshop, and learned a lot in the process.

Some highlights:

8 sessions of the same class in 2 days - never done this before!

Meeting LOTS of people from the Spraground! And many who have taken classes at JessicaSprague.com! It’s so AWESOME to meet and feel a connection right away because of our shared experience in learning Photoshop online. :D

Someone brought their laptop down to the Free Shoot last night, and asked a question, and we sat on the floor to work on it, and soon there were 20 or so people gathered around asking questions and chatting about Photoshop, photo editing, digital scrapbooking, the works. It was awesome.

Hearing people say after a class session that they wish they could just stay and edit pics instead of eating or going to another class. Hehe.

Hitting up In-n-Out Burger (for my first time ever) with Nicole, Candice, and Brittany Beattie. We got lost, even with Brittany’s GPS. Nicole (who was telling us that she LOVES to visit In-n-Out whenever she can), pulls out her iPhone and says, “I’ll just call them. I have them programmed into my phone.” And she scrolled down to the i’s - and there in her phone? In-n-Out Burger. “You thought I was lying. I’m not. Hi, Jennifer? We’re at the San Jose airport, and wonder if you can tell us where the closest In-n-Out is?” And Jennifer guided us right there. It was really good food, yes. And the CULT-ural experience (is Nicole the only one who knows what “animal style” is? It’s part of the secret In-n-Out menu that means “grilled onions”) was eye-opening. :)

Being part of the Beta Testers for a brand-new event. Always fun times and adventure. :) And it just feels like beta testers for the most part are the adventurous souls who are willing to overlook a few glitches in exchange for the opportunity to make history :)

Walking around the hotel at every hour of the day (mornings, lunchtime, evenings) and seeing students kneeling in the driveway of the hotel taking shots of the skylights, laying on the tiles out by the pool, laying in the grass, climbing trees, leaning on cars, experimenting with shots and really learning what they were there to practice. It was SO cool.

And now it’s home again. So glad for that. Jared and I need to go watch an episode of Futurama or the Simpsons and hang out. Now that August (and my 3-of-4 weekends of travel this month) is done I’m looking forward to a month of being home before a couple more trips planned for this year:

I’ll be teaching the same photo editing class at CPR in Connecticut in October, plus teaching two hybrid classes at Momento in Milfort, CT (one is a layout class and one is a mini-album), as well as hanging out that night at a crop. Then I’m looking forward to experiencing NYC for a couple of days afterward with Candice! As a small-town Idaho girl, this biggest of big cities has always scared me a little bit. But I’m totally excited to see it with Candice as guide and partner-in-shopping! :D

I’ll be teaching a hybrid project at the Scrap Etc. Wrapper’s Delight event November 6-8 in Birmingham, AL. I’m looking forward to getting inspired for the holidays! :D

And then of course we’ve got great online goodness:

The beginner digital scrapbooking class, Up & Running with Photoshop, is now Self-Paced. So you can register at any time. (Remember to send me an email if you were at CPR this weekend!) This is the place where the Photoshop fun begins. :)

Registration for Type + Writer starts tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. Eastern! Liv and I are so excited to add a journaling/typography class to our lineup! It’ll be 2 weeks of writing and typography AND exclusive templates to help you scrap 6 pages along the way!